1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic tracking camera system for automatically tracking an object to be picked up as an image, and more particularly, to an automatic tracking camera system for automatically tracking an aircraft as an object to be tracked.
2. Description of the Related Art
A camera including a camera platform (hereinafter referred to as “platform camera”), which is constructed of a camera mounted to an electric camera platform and is capable of performing a rotating operation such as panning and tilting, has an operation apparatus connected thereto through a cable or wireless communication so that the camera and the camera platform can be controlled in a remote place. An operator operates the operation apparatus while viewing an image displayed on a monitor screen, to thereby control the camera mounted to the camera platform and the camera platform.
In recent years, there has been proposed an automatic tracking camera system for automatically recognizing and tracking an object through use of an image recognition technology provided to the platform camera. With this automatic tracking camera system, even when the operator does not continue to manually change the direction of the platform camera for adjusting the direction of the platform camera to the moving object, the moving object can be tracked automatically and an image thereof can be picked up. However, in order to perform the automatic tracking/image pickup operation through use of the image recognition technology, the object needs to appear within the range of the camera, otherwise the automatic tracking/image pickup operation cannot be started. In particular, in a case of picking up an image of landing of an aircraft, the runway and angle for the landing may be changed depending on meteorological conditions, such as a wind speed and visibility, and an installation condition of an instrument landing system, and hence the automatic tracking through use of the image recognition technology cannot be performed in some cases.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-270404 discloses a technology of detecting a position and a direction of the aircraft through use of a radar apparatus.
However, the conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-270404 is a technology of monitoring the aircraft, and hence the position and the direction of the aircraft are detected through use of the radar apparatus. The installation of the radar apparatus for automatically tracking the aircraft and picking up an image thereof for general purposes is not feasible in terms of cost and installation space to be ensured.